You can be forgiven for thinking that unicorns only exist in medieval fables and modern-day cartoons. North Korean scientists say you are wrong.

On Thursday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the North Korea’s government mouthpiece, said scientists “reconfirmed” the location of the burial site of the unicorn ridden by King Dongmyeong, the founding father of the ancient Korean kingdom of Goguryeo (37 BC-668 AD).

The unicorn’s grave was rediscovered near a temple in the capital Pyongyang, with a rectangular rock engraved with the words ‘Unicorn Lair’ at its entrance, according to the report. The report did not elaborate on what further evidence of the royal unicorn’s existence was discovered.

Like most news reports from North Korea, even unicorns are used to underscore the legitimacy of the current regime. “The discovery proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo (Goguryeo) Kingdom,” the report quoted Jo Hui Sung, director of the History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences, as saying.

King Dongmyeong’s biography is half history, half myth. As the legend goes, Kongmyeong was born from an egg impregnated by sunlight and united the tribes left in disarray after the collapse of the Chinese Western Han dynasty. His line ruled over the Korean peninsula for seven centuries until the return of the Chinese under the Tang.

The North Korean news agency does not have much of a reputation for factual accuracy. When the country’s former dictator Kim Jong Il died in December 2011, it reported a rock carving glowing brightly and ice near his presumed birthplace to have cracked “so loud, it seemed to shake the Heavens and the Earth” in mourning of the Dear Leader. While he was alive, Kim reportedly invented the hamburger, wrote 1,500 books in three years while at university, and shot eleven holes-in-one the first time he played golf (a feat verified by his 17 bodyguards).

Even Colin Powell proved before the UN that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Even right now they are proving, again before the UN, that Iran, and Syria are either pursuing or will pursue or will use or could use, or will eventually either pursue, or could eventually pursue, Weapons of Mass Destruction.

More self-promoting propaganda? They say that North Korea's mind control technology is quite real though, and I can imagine that it is true. I would also imagine South Korea does its own counter propaganda efforts. It may be that neither side can truly be trusted.

I'll bet it's fabulous to be a Korean scientist. Evidence and records aren't important there. The only validation you'll ever need, is that your brains haven't been blown out by an unamused tyrant, within 24 hours of making crap up.

You made some major errors in the last paragraph - 1/ The story is that Kim Jong Il wrote 1,500 political pamphlets, which I believe could be true. They're not big, but due to a translation oversimplification, they tend to get called 'books'.2/ Nobody ever said that North Korea invented the hamburger. I was there recently, and when I asked where the hamburger came from? They said either China, or probably America. They have never claimed it as their own.Get your facts straight when you're reporting on North Korea... it's a weird country in a difficult situation, and things will only improve through developing understanding on both sides. Not by 'reporting' second- or third-hand rumours about how crazy someone once told you the North Koreans are.If you want to read the considered opinions of somebody who has actually been there, you can check out my report here: www.thebohemianblog.com/pyongyang

I contend that even among the most hardened party officials of the DPRK, there exists at least a sliver of consciousness of the degree to which their efforts to maintain the Kim personality cult wades into self-parody.

Sorry, but this is just bad journalism. The "scientists" claiming to have found it are historians. They found the likely location of a place that was called Kiringul (which literally does mean "Unicorn Cave"). They aren't making the claim that there were any actual unicorns there. Just that it is the place that has been associated with a legendary king who kept unicorns there.It's basically the equivalent of a western scientist claiming to have discovered the ruins of Camelot. Still pretty unlikely, and quite possibly fraudulent, but not as ridiculous as this article seems to make it. Especially since we actually have found the ruins of Troy, a city long thought to not actually exist and the center of an equally fantastical and unlikely tale.

Not much worse then our republican science commitee with one guy who says rape cannot cause pregnancy because female body can discern Evelyn sperm from good intentioned one. Or the other guy who says evolution is the Devil's trick . Not to mention climate change, vaccination and so on. Actually north Ktorea does not even sound that backwards anymore